Brexiteers fume as UK tones down bonfire of EU laws – POLITICO

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LONDON The UK government has poured cold water on the much-vaunted plans for a post-Brexit EU legacy bonfire and some Tory eurosceptics are not happy.

At a briefing on Monday on the Retained EU Legislation Bill, Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch told senior Tory Brexiteers that by December 31 the government will cut only 800 or one in four of the roughly 3,200 pieces of EU legislation that have been automatically added to the UK Law Book. after Brexit.

The bill introduces a controversial sunset clause that will automatically erase laws withheld by the EU that have not been amended or repealed by the end of this year. Proponents see the slaughter as a key Brexit dividend as the UK goes its own way, but the policy has been criticized by business groups for creating regulatory uncertainty.

Badenoch told the group of MPs his officials had concluded it was not possible to scrap thousands of laws, according to people in the room who confirmed a Daily Telegraph report.

A government spokesperson did not deny the report and said the administration is currently considering its approach to amendments to the bill, which is still awaiting a date for consideration at report stage at the House of Lords, which is expected to take place in mid-May.

We remain committed to ensuring that the Upholding European Law Bill (REUL) receives Royal Assent and that the supremacy of European law ends with the removal of unnecessary and burdensome European laws by the end of this year, the spokesperson said.

Once passed, the bill will allow the country to better seize the opportunities of Brexit by ensuring that regulations meet the needs of the UK, helping to grow our economy and spur innovation, they added. .

But the new plan has sparked fury from Tory Brexiteers. Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former business secretary who spearheaded the plan while in government, said Badenoch was one of the government’s most dynamic ministers and warned that if she could not hold her promise, it suggested the intransigence of officials who are paid to deliver.

He asked on his GB News show: The question is whether we are now getting instead of the full Brexit roast beef we were hoping for, with roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings and slicks of gravy, just light grits ?

Others saw a pragmatic compromise that could further facilitate improved UK relations with the EU, which had closely followed discussions of the bill in London.

David Davis, a former Brexit secretary and senior Tory MP, told POLITICO that the most important objective should be to get a detailed review of specific laws, and that strengthening ties with Brussels was frankly secondary.

The truth is that much EU law makes little difference for a variety of reasons, he said. One is [they are] minor legislation, often consistent with other international legislation that we would be inclined to comply with, such as UN automotive regulations. But on the other hand, there are some that make a big difference and matter to the country, those are the ones we should focus on.

Davis, who has previously worried about the impact of EU laws being scrapped too quickly, said some lawmakers at the European Research Group of Eurosceptic Conservative MPs fear that if the Tories lose the next general election, the Labor will not complete the cleaning task. these laws.

But he said it was important to give the House of Commons enough time to digest the gigantic number of laws that still need to be revised.

The Brexit campaign slogan was “take back control”, to give control to Westminster, not to give it to Whitehall. If you try to rush it all at once, the House of Commons won’t have time to look at it properly,” he said. “I think we should keep looking at them longer term.

Anand Menon, UK director at a changing Europe think tank, said the government’s new plan made much more sense.

No one has ever claimed that there is no European regulation that we should get rid of or that we can change. But planning to remove them all just to make a political point was simply unwise, he said.

Stefan Boscia contributed reporting.

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